Miriam Ward Painting 1: Watercolour Log Book: November 2013

Monday 18 November 2013

Assignment 5 Series of five paintings - Rescued

This post contains my final five paintings for Assignment 5

The series is titled Rescued

There are a number of reasons for my choosing this title. I have not always felt emotionally engaged with the work I have produced during the watercolour module, and if I have the emotion has been disappointment or stress with my output. My choice of subject matter for this final assignment has I think rescued the watercolour module for me, in addition all of the plants I have chosen have been rescued, close to death on a reduced shelf in the garden centre, desperate for water and care. Seeing how they bloom and transform with a little consideration is something I find wonderful. I also think this echoes my own journey, redundancy took me from the dry earth of my corporate career and has allowed me to branch out and really develop my creative side and experience this wonderful journey of the Textiles Degree pathway. I think working to produce a series has been a real challenge, but an enjoyable one. Initially my idea was to work on orchids solely but as I spent time in the evenings sketching I couldn't help but diversify my choice of subject matter! I felt the opportunity to use various different techniques was more open to me with the use of other plants, and perhaps working on orchids solely would have been a little too limited? Its hard to tell how it would have turned out to focus on the orchids alone, its tempting to go and paint a further two orchid interpretations to replace the Christmas Cactus and Hibiscus Bloom paintings but I am happy to submit assignment five as the journey itself and how my ideas developed as I worked on it.

I have tried to remain positive while struggling particularly with the landscape elements of this course, painting these plants and flowers has really revived my original enthusiasm for watercolour painting. I have also attempted to reflect back on my previous work while completing this assignment, and recall and review techniques learned in previous assignments, and I have also been quite surprised at myself for the approach and scale of the final painting! (Orchid collage)

I can see clear progress in my work, from the early experiments where I followed the required exercises to the letter! I think these early paintings are fairly clumsy and lacking in emotion, and at the outset of the course I already thought I would "paint" using watercolours. Its strange that my final projects focussed so heavily on the orchid, as this was the subject of my first still life composition for Assignment 1, I can really see how my painting and use of the watercolour medium has been refined as I have moved through the course (Yellow Orchid). I do feel however that at times I have felt constrained by the way the course is written with a heavy focus on a classic approach, and I feel I have only really truly enjoyed the final assignment with the emphasis exploration, experimentation and abstraction (I am actually quite surprised that I enjoyed the abstraction section!).

The processes I have found most beneficial have been the approach of using a number of preparatory sketches and paintings to prepare for the final painting, and how these experiments and in depth observation can really affect the final outcome, and can have some surprising discoveries along the way. I really hope to continue to use these approaches as I progress to Level 2 Textiles. Another significant learning which is not related to the course content as such is that it is not really possible for me to study two course modules alongside each other. I started this module at the same time as Textiles Exploring Ideas and very quickly found that very different approaches were needed for each course (my tutor has never see my work in the flesh for watercolour, for textiles everything has been posted for review) so it came to the point where I had to stop the watercolour to focus on the Textiles then return to the watercolour to complete it.

As I review my work overall for this module the paintings I have enjoyed most have been the "freer" sketches using pen and ink and watercolour while painting fairly quickly. I also really enjoyed my own "exercise" of Hyacinth30 which I feel really enabled me to develop to observation skills and was key in re-igniting my enthusiasm for watercolour painting. http://hyacinth30.blogspot.co.uk/

Painting 1 - Christmas Cactus A3

Christmas Cactus - Masking Fluid, Alizairin Crimson Tonal Study

Christmas Cactus - Detail

Painting 2 - Hibiscus bloom A3

Hibiscus Bloom - Yellow Brusho, Chinese White and Alizairin Crimson watercolour

Hibiscus Bloom - Detail

Painting 3 - Orchid magnification A3

Orchid Magnification - Watercolour, Wax resist, fusible film and fusible fibre

Orchid Magnification - Detail

Orchid magnification - detail

Orchid Magnification - detail

Painting 4 - Yellow orchid A3

Yellow orchid - Ink & watercolour

Yellow orchid - detail

Painting 5 - Orchid collage A1 Watercolour Board

Orchid Collage - Brusho, paper collage, wax resist, oil pastel, indigo watercolour

Orchid collage - detail

Project 4 Themes and series - Painting 5 Orchid collage

Brusho, with cut and town orchid shapes glued into place, with some wax resist images added to the image

First washes laid around and over collaged images

Orchid Collage - A1 Watercolour Board Finished Painting

Orchid Collage - detail

This final painting was a really enjoyable exploration of scale. I had drawn from the painting I completed for the themed collage and painting http://miriamward.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/exercise-themed-collage-and-painting.html I loved the way the orchid images look in the abstract painting but I had also really enjoyed the gorgeous mid tone of the indigo watercolour I had used. I decided however that for this painting and collage I would include some of the green and yellow due to the green and yellow orchid I have. I felt that that the use of a yellow wash across the whole board would give n interesting basis and provide contrast when I use a resist to echo some of the images. I also decided I would like to try to work on a larger scale for this final painting and so had a rummage through my watercolour resources and came across this watercolour board which I had originally picked up for mounting my textiles work for assessment. I guess if I am not going to work on this scale now then its never going to happen. I photocopied images of my own paintings and tore and cut them and arranged them on the watercolour board which I had washed with lemon yellow brusho. After arranging and gluing the images to the board I then worked on some areas using a white wax crayon, and then started my layering of tonal washes. Once I was happy that the tonal washes were sufficient I then further worked into the painting using some black, white and indigo oil pastel as I was able to use this to blend and soften some of the edges.

I think the main issue with this painting has been knowing when to stop! Its tempting to keep on darkening the tonal edges around the collaged pieces but I think I have managed to gain a fairly balanced finished piece - particularly the relationship between the yellow resist areas and the darkest indigo areas. I think I am surprised overall with this piece as I had not really taken to the collage exercise as such, however I do think collage is something I will explore again in textile sketch and log books.

Project 4 Themes and series - Painting 4 - Yellow orchid

Ink pen and aquamarker pen A5

Ink pen and aquamarker

Pen and watercolour wash

Yellow Orchid - Pen and watercolour

Yellow orchid - pen and watercolour - Detail

Yellow orchid - Detail

Yellow orchid - detail

I think this painting is a good example of my enthusiasm for painting fairly detailed observational watercolours. I felt in the melee of experimental ways of painting and using various mixed media I really wanted to paint a simply observational study. I completed a series of observational paintings and drawings which are above, and then settled on my final composition. I then decided that to commit to this painting properly I would use my permanent pen to draw my image from the outset. I feel this is significant progress, in the past all of my paintings would have begun life using a pencil line cautiously! When I compare this painting to some of my earlier still life observational paintings I can see I have used the watercolour fare more considerately and carefully, I feel it has still retained some of my fairly lively and free style but my application of paint has become fare more considered and I have developed the patience to build up texture and tone in a series of layers. After applying the paint I have then returned to the painting with my drawing pen. I have been careful not to get too carried away with the use of this pen, to overwhelm the watercolour laid onto the paper, and hopefully this come across in the finished painting. I think this style of painting is the one I am most comfortable with, from the outset pen and watercolour has really appealed to me and I have no doubt I will continue to take this approach in my textiles sketchbooks.

Project 4 Themes and series - Painting 3 - Orchid Magnification

This third painting for assignment 5 was a very natural progression from the exercise in magnification which I worked on in this assignment. I really enjoyed getting stuck into working on the enlargement of the photograph which I had taken, the amount of detail to work from is amazing. I continued to explore the orchid theme in my sketchbooks and on loose leaf paper, and these further experiments are below.

Mixed Media Close up - using wax as an outline, followed by watercolour washes with fusible film and fusible fibres heat bonded and adhered to the page to give texture and light to the piece - A5

Wax resist with washes of watercolour and pen and ink detail - A5

Brusho sprinkled onto damp paper, then orchid image painted in chinese white - A4

Final Painting - mixed media orchid using watercolours fusible film and bibres with wax resist and watercolour.

Orchid magnificatation - detail

I chose to create definition and distinctions between the various shapes within the whole using a fairly thick wax crayon. I like the linear separate outcome from this. I then ironed three separate components from fusible film, fusible fibre and finally a combination of the two to give differing elements to the whole. the painting does look very different depending on the light it is viewed in - so I have added another photograph below with a close up of the centre top element as I was careful to create a section with detail behind the fusible film which isn't clear in the photograph above.On the petals to the left and right I chose to use the hard lines of wet watercolour painted over a wash to give me my lines of the veins of the petals moving out from the centre of the bloom. i was keen here to keep the lines quite crisp and I think I achieved this through having only one wash underneath the lines radiating out from the centre. I am a bit sorry that I have only just come across the combination of fusible film with watercolour as a mixed media approach! I think there is a lot of potential here for exploration and its transparent nature gives scope for layering over watercolour images to give the suggestion of line veiled lightly by a semi opaque layer. Another aspect of this painting which I enjoyed is the outcome of the watercolour over the wax. the heavily saturated pigment settling between the texture in the paper and the wax resist is a wonderful effect, I am a bit concerned that this is an effect lost in the photography! I created a 3D effect in the dark centre of the flower by working into the edges of wet paint using a darker saturate mix which has give a feeling of shading to dark at the edges. Of the 5 paintings for this final assignment I feel this one best reflects my personality and my progress, its possible I have included too many different fusible film and fibre elements, and in the eyes of others it may not work at all, but I suppose that raises the question of who I am creating my art for? In all honesty this one was for me, and I am happy with that.

Project 4 - Themes and series - Painting 2 - Hibiscus Bloom

Hibiscus plant - rescued from a garden centre....and flowering beautifully

Withering hibiscus blooms - such amazing shapes and form

Ink and aquamarker study of withering hibiscus blooms - A5 sketchbook

Tissue paper base, watercolour wash and soluble graphite - withered hibiscus bloom A4

Ink and Aquamarker

The key painting - I loved the way my lazy experimental painting led me to discover the amazing bleeding of red into white to perfectly replicate the way this appears on the flower. (Brusho, chinese white, watercolour)

Hibiscus Bloom - A3 - Brusho wash, Chinese white and Alizarin crimson watercolour.

Hibiscus bloom - detail

Following the successful experimentation in my A4 sketchbook I really felt this was a painting I would enjoy. I had to paint each petal individually so that I could allow the alizarin crimson to bleed into the wet chinese white, I love the resultant feathered effect and am very happy with how this painting has turned out. I had used a very vibrant lemon yellow brusho as a wash and had found in the sketchbook painting that this approach gave a background that did not actually seep into the white as I painted this over it, although I had kept the white fairly thick to make the most of its opaque quality. I was thrilled with the pure crisp bleeding of the alizairin crimson and was equally pleased when I was able to recreate it for the Hibiscus Bloom painting. the composition of this painting was about making sure i didn't just have the centre of a hibiscus flower in the centre of my page - and the offset approach has allowed some of the vibrant yellow to stand alone. It was quite a challenge to achieve the twisted effect of the stamen in the centre but I achieved this by drying the painting thoroughly then painting over that section again with a very heavily saturated mix of alizairin crimson. As I reflect back at this painting I think it is probably one of my freer paintings and one which I didn't agonise over for a long time, however through the process of sketching I had already discounted other interpretations of the hibiscus, I really did want it to look like what it is!